Chapter 7

Chapter Seven

Uhura walked back to her quarters in a haze. She could not believe she said yes to the dark eyed, gorgeous Ambassador for dinner. She had been hit on plenty of times by the various dignitaries they had transported since the Enterprise launched and not one ever tempted her like this man. He seemed so hesitant, almost shy while talking to her. She entered her quarters and changed into her sleepwear. She was tired after working a double shift as one of the communication officers under her was in sickbay, with the flu of all things. She crawled into her bed and grabbed her PADD. She made sure everything was ready for their briefing tomorrow morning and made some last minute adjustments. She was excited that the Captain was letting her lead some of the meeting. She set her PADD down and rolled onto her back. She closed her eyes and saw him in her mind's eye. He was so beautiful with the atypical dark eyes of his people and the blonde hair made them stand out even more. Uhura clenched her legs together at the rush of arousal she felt just thinking of the man. She hadn’t stopped since she first saw him. She spent her second shift doing nothing but thinking of him, that was the real reason she went to the observation deck to unwind. She sighed, even there she could not stop herself and then he showed up. There was something about him that called to her. Not even Spock who she loved dearly called to her like this man did. She pulled the covers over her head and forced her mind from thinking of this man. She had to be up early to get ready for the briefing and she could not afford to mess it up. She wanted to advance in Starfleet and everyone already thought she got her position by sleeping with Spock. She felt herself relax and finally drifted off to sleep, still haunted by those dark eyes.

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Uhura rolled over with a groan as her alarm went off. She turned it off and got up to get ready for the briefing. Morning had come way too early as it took her a while to get to sleep. She went to her closet and picked out the nicest uniform she had as she wanted to look nice for when she saw Omal again. She face palmed as she realized what she was doing. With a sigh of self disgust, she put the uniform back and grabbed one of her everyday uniforms. She went and took a sonic shower and brushed her teeth. She went out and got into her uniform and grabbed breakfast from the replicator. Once she had finished, she grabbed her PADD and headed to the conference room where the briefing was to be held.

She was glad to see that she was not late, but not the first to arrive either. She smiled when she saw the Captain and Commander already seated. The Commander was trying to get the Captain to eat more and he was obviously full. She went and took her seat and greeted her Captain and Commander. “Uhura, how are you this morning?”

“I’m fine, Captain. How are you?”

“We’re doing great! They actually let me sleep last night. Though they did kick my bladder way too early this morning.” He rubbed his rounding belly.

“Well, at least you were able to sleep through the night.”

“True. Hey, if we have time on Ardana, want to go baby shopping with me?”

“Yes, I would. Auntie Ny has to get her boys somethings.”

Jim laughed and rubbed his belly again. “Oh I see, Auntie Ny is going to spoil them rotten.”

“Yes, yes I will.”

They settled down as the remainder of the group for the debriefing showed up. Doctor McCoy and Scotty sat next to each other and the rest of the group took their seats. The Ambassadors came in with their aides and sat down as well in the unclaimed chairs. Jim got down to business. “We are going to Ardana as it wishes to join the Federation. I will be turning the floor over to Uhura. I take it you all have read your packets?”

They nodded and some lifted their PADDS. “Good. Uhura, you have the floor.” Jim leaned back in his seat and pulled up the needed packet on his PADD.

“Thank you, Captain. As you can see from the packet, Ardana is trying to join the Federation. They are the only known planet that has Zenite. This ore is used as a cure for agricultural plagues. The planet is governed by a Plutocracy from Stratos. This being their capital city. Right now their leader is High Advisor Plasus. He is the one positioning Starfleet to join the Federation. There are two humanoid species on this planet, The City Dwellers and the Troglytes. The Troglytes are the miners and live on the planet itself. Stratos is a cloud city and kept aloft by anti-gravity engines. This is where we will be meeting for the talks.  They are split up in a cast system. Now they can be easily offended and their leader is temperamental. We have to be wary at all times on how we deal with them.”

“So how are they split up in the caste?” Sulu asked.

“The City-dwellers are the ruling class, where the Troglytes are the laborers. They work in the mines and as servants on Stratos and the other cities that litter the surface of the planet.”

“They do speak standard, I see from your notes.” Omal looked up from the tablet. 

“Yes, they do speak standard so this well make negotiations easier as we will not have to rely on translators as well as the communication officers.” They all nodded at this. “According to the itinerary, at 1500 after we arrive, there will be a welcoming feast that the Ambassadors and Captain Kirk and his chief officers are required to attend. The negotiations themselves will start the following day at 1000 hours.”

“So we have a two hour time frame from when we arrive to when the feast starts to beam down and meet with the High Advisor?” Jim asked for further clarification.

“That is correct, sir. They are requesting according to Starfleet communications that we stay at the capital for the duration of the talks.”

“So we will need to make sure we pack everything that we need to avoid insulting them by going back to the ship for any reason.”

“Correct, sir.”

“Good, we will be arriving at the planet tomorrow at 1300 hours. We will beam down the two Ambassadors, myself and Commander Spock first. We will greet the High Advisor and call for the remaining of the group to beam down right after. Hopefully this will give us time to get staff and belongs down for the duration of the stay.” Sarek, Selek, Omal and Shrathe Zh’raothor nodded their agreement. Jim turned to Sulu, “Mr. Sulu, as myself, Commander Spock, Doctor McCoy and Commander Scott will be planet side, you will have control of the conn. I will have the work rotations already drawn up for you. Feel free to make changes as they are needed.”

“Aye, sir.” Sulu nodded his head.

“Does anyone have anything else?” Jim looked around. “Then let's get to work people. Ambassadors.” Jim nodded to them and they left. Jim lead his bridge crew to the bridge to relieve the relief crew that was manning the bridge during the meeting. McCoy dragged Scotty to his office for a make out session. He wasn’t due on duty until Beta shift and wanted some time with his fiance before he went down to engineering.

Omal smiled as he left the room. Nyota looked so confident and efficient when she was going over the briefing on what they needed to know. Perhaps he should consider courting her. He could stay on the ship if they do marry and he could find something else that he could do. It was something to look into, but first he had to make a call to the Ruling Council on what he was able to find out. He perked up as he realized that he would get to talk to Nyota as he had to have her place his subspace call. With a spring in his step, he went back to his quarters.